What the world doesn't need: another set of jargon phrases to use in diagramming the life out of Shakespeare's plays. Gibson (Two for the Seesaw, The Miracle Worker) fashioned his particular vocabulary for a graduate seminar in play-wrighting, and perhaps in that context there was some educational benefit in describing Shakespearean scenes and overall dramatic structure in terms of "levels," "moves," "submoves," "objects," "barriers," "master premises," "surrogates," "third-act pivots," or "plunges" (the last two really just new tags for what every high-schooler learns as "climax" and "denouement"). For the general reader, however, as Gibson dips in and out of Hamlet, Lear, Othello, The Tempest, and many others, the effect is unoriginal at best—parallels between Lear and Gloucester, what keeps Hamlet from killing Claudius, etc.—and often infuriatingly cloddish, as with Midsummer's Night Dream: "The ass is 'translated' from the third level, where the move is the artisans' and its object is on the first. . . . On the fourth level, Oberon is the move and Titania the object." Only one sequence, in which Gibson uses his system in a comparison of the 1603 and 1604 version of Hamlet, offers anything remotely fresh and illuminating to scholar or playgoer. For the rest, we'll have to applaud playwright Gibson's assurance that this is his "first and last book as a critic.
Pub Date: Oct. 1, 1978
ISBN: 0689705735
Page Count: -
Publisher: Atheneum
Review Posted Online: March 30, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 1978
This is not the Nutcracker sweet, as passed on by Tchaikovsky and Marius Petipa. No, this is the original Hoffmann tale of 1816, in which the froth of Christmas revelry occasionally parts to let the dark underside of childhood fantasies and fears peek through. The boundaries between dream and reality fade, just as Godfather Drosselmeier, the Nutcracker's creator, is seen as alternately sinister and jolly. And Italian artist Roberto Innocenti gives an errily realistic air to Marie's dreams, in richly detailed illustrations touched by a mysterious light. A beautiful version of this classic tale, which will captivate adults and children alike. (Nutcracker; $35.00; Oct. 28, 1996; 136 pp.; 0-15-100227-4)
Pub Date: Oct. 28, 1996
ISBN: 0-15-100227-4
Page Count: 136
Publisher: Harcourt
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 1996
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
An extravaganza in Bemelmans' inimitable vein, but written almost dead pan, with sly, amusing, sometimes biting undertones, breaking through. For Bemelmans was "the man who came to cocktails". And his hostess was Lady Mendl (Elsie de Wolfe), arbiter of American decorating taste over a generation. Lady Mendl was an incredible person,- self-made in proper American tradition on the one hand, for she had been haunted by the poverty of her childhood, and the years of struggle up from its ugliness,- until she became synonymous with the exotic, exquisite, worshipper at beauty's whrine. Bemelmans draws a portrait in extremes, through apt descriptions, through hilarious anecdote, through surprisingly sympathetic and understanding bits of appreciation. The scene shifts from Hollywood to the home she loved the best in Versailles. One meets in passing a vast roster of famous figures of the international and artistic set. And always one feels Bemelmans, slightly offstage, observing, recording, commenting, illustrated.
Pub Date: Feb. 23, 1955
ISBN: 0670717797
Page Count: -
Publisher: Viking
Review Posted Online: Oct. 25, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 1955
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